The Battle of New York
by Adventfear
Summary: Mysterious, car-sized pyramids begin crashing all over the planet. Before long, it becomes clear that these objects are just the first phase of a sinister plan. Please review.


This is an original story with original characters.

--

Times Square: New York City, 6:45 PM

Monday, October 13th, 2014

"Mack! MACK!!" A light rain fell with the occasional clap of thunder as two construction workers argued over a damaged section of the street. Mack, the younger worker sat underneath a canvas to get out of the rain and something to eat when Zander, his superior, walked over to him. "What the hell 'you doin'?" He asked with a raised, annoyed voice. Mack, who was sitting with a pizza slice in his hand "I'm getting soaked out there, boss. I needed something to eat so I came in here." he said discomforted. Zander snapped back, "You are not gettin' pay to eat. I don't care if it is wet outdere you go out and do your job! The boss wants us to get this done before he our contract is up. Now GET TO WORK!" without any further arguing, Mack angrily grabbed a sledgehammer and left the comfort of the canvas. Making sure he was gone, Zander smiled and sat down in the dry chair. "Stupid son of a-" and that was the last thing he ever said.

Before he could react, a large, green pyramid-like object slammed into the street, killing Zander and knocking Mack fifteen feet back into a concrete wall with the resulting explosion. People driving down the street slammed on their brakes the best they could but some larger vehicles are naturally hard to stop. A Semi truck driver transporting gasoline was startled by the explosion and before he could react his rig slammed into parked cars, sending him through the windshield while the truck itself kept momentum. Hundreds of people ran for their lives as the out of control behemoth slammed onto the sidewalk and into a power line, jackknifing the steel container of volatile fuel until it ripped off and plowed sideways into an old theatre where it rolled and ruptured.

The fuel spilled all over the sidewalk where it met the downed electrical line. The ground shook from the resulting blast and the theatre completely exploded, with tons of metal and concrete cascading down the face of the structure and into the street.

--

Above the Atlantic Ocean

Twenty minutes earlier.

Two fighter jets angled downwards. Spiraling towards the ocean at hundreds of feet per second. The pilots were like brothers, both first meeting when they were assigned to a Boeing 747 in their earlier years. That was 14 years prior to this day. Both suddenly stopped in place using advanced VTOL engines. Scott, the pilot of the first one, picked up his radio communications link--comlink, for short--and contacted his wingman "How's it working for you?" Through the radio link, he heard his friend Mike say "Like a dream ol' buddy. I never though the Navy would allow us to pilot these, especially considering what happened in Guam." Scott had a dark glare on his face as he said "That was not my fault. The wiring was loose."

Both jets flew towards New York, at speed on autopilot. The two sat back in the pilot chairs and let the computer take them home. After a minute or two, Mike's radar screen began firing up, with a very large blip that appeared on the green sweepscan. He radioed Scott. "Scott, are you getting this?", he asked, "Yeah, what is that?" Picking up a comm, Scott contacted his HQ "Navy command this is Two Eagle, we have picked up a radar contact four miles off the coast of New York. Do you have the same reading?" The voice on the return was full of static and craggy "Negative Two Eagle, we are picking up no contacts on our radar screen." 'It must have some type of long range stealth mode.', Scott thought with an uneasy feeling. He then contacted Mike "It's not that far from us we can make visual contact with it." Overhearing, Navy command responded to his passing statement, "Roger, you are clear to intercept but do not engage. Repeat do not engage." "Copy that, over and out."

The two planes banked east and headed towards the object. Scott looked at his radar screen and saw they were closing in on the blip. Before long, the overhead rain clouds gave way to reveal a massive, silver ship similar to an armored personnel carrier. It had hundreds of smaller objects shaped like pyramids connected to the bottom and was covered in green lights snaking across the surface like veins. The lights connected to each other in odd, unknown patterns resembling hieroglyphs, but nothing a pilot--who has traveled across the entire planet--had seen. "What the hell is that?", Scott said, not really a question, but more like a passing statement. Nevertheless, Mike responded with a straight up answer. "I don't know. But I don't think it's gonna tell us." He flew forward and locked on the ship. Scott wasn't watching him at first, but he caught on to his friend's actions. "What are you doing?" he sternly asked, "Command told us not to engage." "What do you expect me to do?" Mike replied, "Let this thing get closer to the city and drop those--what they look like--bombs to raze it? I don't think so. Besides, it's like a freaking blimp… what threat could it possibly hold?" Mike's jet flew towards the ship and fired two sidewinder missiles at it. The object retaliated with four very potent beams of light that emitted from the "hieroglyphs" and turned said jet into flaming rubble.

Scott's best friend died right in front of him. "NOOOOOOO" he screamed, a standard reaction to these events and that was all he could think of at the time. Wasting no time, he banked around and fired all six of his missiles at the ship, before it could retaliate, the tiny jet (compared to it) stopped in place and flew forward at subsonic speeds, barely avoiding the deadly laser light-show. Scott twirled upwards and over the ship, dropping a payload of bombs which damaged the outer hull. The ship fired back two glowing orbs which whizzed by the jet's wings. Scott flew downwards and skimmed the ship's topside, dropping another payload of small bombs. Suddenly the orbs that were fired earlier exploded in a bright ball of light, which to those in New York looked like simple lightning.

Scott double-backed and fired 50 caliber machine guns at the cannon that fired the orbs, which eventually broke apart and fell off. "YEAH!" he cheered, thinking it was over, but his early celebration ended as the ship turned completely invisible and, judging by the movement in the clouds, sped up to at least mach 8. Scott kept pursuit by watching the clouds part the best he could, but it was all in vain. The ship dropped a green "pyramid" and disappeared into the clouds. Scott's face went white as he watched the object fall into the heart of Manhattan, not able to track it with his machine guns, but breathed a sigh of relief when no explosion of nuclear proportions went off like Mike had thought would happen. Undaunted, he sped off and followed the trajectory of the ship, intent to find it.

On the intercom, he heard Navy command blaring out orders to him. "Two Eagle report to base immediately. You have disobeyed direct orders! TWO EAGLE RETURN TO BASE NOW!" Scott picked up the comlink, "Sorry command. You are breaking up." He said, rather unenthusiastically. To damn what Navy command said, this was personal. And come hell or high water, he will find this ship.

He will avenge Mike.

--

Nick, a young Mechanic, heard the explosions from in his shop and ran outside the see the ruckus. People were running in all directions and he looked up above to see a jet flying overhead with blazing speed. Before he could make sense of things, Nick he heard a car horn right behind him, which naturally made him twirl around just in time to see a sedan driving on the sidewalk and towards him. Frozen in terror, he watched as the 2 ton vehicle came barreling towards him, then away, then he felt the side of his body hit concrete. Shaken out of his trance, he looked up to see a man wearing a suit laying not far away.

--

Jack, an office assistant, ran out of his workplace to hundreds of people scattering and running in all directions. Up ahead, he saw a green fireball extend into the air. Fire, smoke and concrete filled half the street. He looked over and saw a young grease monkey standing not far from him. He was looking up, and suddenly turned to see a car coming right at him. Without thinking of his own welfare, Jack bolted down the sidewalk and jumped, grabbing the mechanic and pushing him out of the way. Nick sat up and saw Jack lying on the ground with a huge gash on his leg where the car had clipped him. "Th-thank you." Nick said, still in shock from the events of the day. Jack smiled and crawled over to the safety of Nick's workshop. "Don't mention it."

Nick helped him into the building and dropped him at a chair, then walked over to a phone. He picked it up and dialed 911, but a busy signal cut him off. "Dammit", slamming the phone on the "dock" he walked back over to Jack. "I'm Nick." "Jack" he replied. Nick walked over to the window and saw the chaos unfolding outside. People were running around like cats chasing string, a fire truck was trying to put the theatre blaze out, ambulances and cop cars were trying to get into the Square but panicking civilians were blocking their way, and civilian cars were being overturned by adrenaline-fueled drivers trying to escape. "Did you see what happened?" Jack asked. Nick shook his head. "No. All I saw was a green fireball of some sort. After that I caught a glimpse of a jet flying overhead and then a car heading towards me. Then I was on the ground."

Jack looked at his leg and shrugged, trying to stand on it. The pain was too immense and he fell to the ground. "I think I need a doctor." he said between winces. Nick pointed outside "There are ambulances out there. Maybe I can help you get to one." He ran over to his wounded friend and assisted in lifting him to his feet. The two went outside, where things seemed to be winding down. People were more interested in the green, three-sided pyramid than their own welfare it seemed. The two moved slowly towards an ambulance, where a physician had set up a temporary triage.

--

An hour had passed…

Blazing across the clouded skies at mach 3, Scott was intent on catching up to the ship, which decloaked and slowed down enough for his small jet fighter to catch up to it again. Preparing to attack it head on, he looked at his reading; "Dammit" he said, realizing he was out of missiles. Having barely survived the last fight with the ship, using drop-bombs and machine guns, Scott decided to stay out of radar range with the mysterious vessel, but kept visual with it. "Where are you going now?" he thought out loud, not caring if anyone was listening in on him. It had been a while since he last heard Navy command blaring out orders to him to "stop" and "return to base"… ripping out the comlink with them might have been the reason for that. He wasn't about to get flogged for avenging his best friend.

He looked around at the ground beneath him and saw a steel refinery not far away. "Pennsylvania" he said to himself, having been to the state before and recognizing this particular area. The ship cloaked again and gained altitude, dropping another green pyramid into the main street of Pittsburg. "What are you doing?" The ship decloaked once again over farmland and gained speed with Scott trailing.

--

Secretary of Defense Jenkins was knee-deep in paperwork, standing in the War Room--the command center of the White House. The President and his chief of staff were on their way back from a negotiation in Spain, and Jenkins was left in charge. From what he knew, something was dropping objects across the entire planet in practically every major city. Whether it was a very elaborate prank or something else entirely, he didn't know. Two navy officers walked into the War Room and stood at attention. "At ease" he said, his throat hoarse from giving out a enough orders in the past hour to fill a Wartime quota. The two officers walked over and one of them whispered in his ear, prompting a single line from him. "In the office. Now."

The three walked into the oval office of the White House, which was located atop the underground War Room Bunker. Jenkins went straight to the point. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE LOST TWO EAGLE?!" The shaken first officer responded with "We lost contact with Captain Scott and his wingman just over an hour ago. They were babbling on about a "unknown contact with stealth capabilities". Not long after that Captain Mike was killed in an explosion and Scott engaged the object." "Was he killed too?? Jenkins asked, concerned; when the officer replied with "no", he breathed a sigh of relief, "Good, then bring my son home." Before the first officer could reply, the second chimed in "He is flying a high-tech jet that operates on two magnetized lithium batteries. That thing can fly non-stop to Jupiter and back and have enough energy left over to power the country for a millennium. He disabled the comm system so we have no way to get him down willingly" Jenkins looked at him and said, "Find a way."

--

Cameron the Physician abandoned his ambulance in the middle of the road. He figured it was what everyone else was doing so why couldn't he? He couldn't drive through the traffic jam of abandoned cars and horrified people, so he tried to make his way to times square on foot. Carrying his medical supplies with him, Cameron tried to walk down the sidewalk but to his fret, everyone was trying to get to times square and the Riot Police was called in to block all access to prevent more chaos. Cameron couldn't get his head over the mob of people and he definitely didn't want to be there if, and probably when, the police started letting go with the rubber bullets and tear gas, so he turned his head and saw an empty alleyway. Slithering out of the mob, he quietly moved there and crept in.

He was getting soaked as he made his way through a dark alley. The rain had picked up and lightning was getting more frequent, but something within the flashes of light caught his eye. It was a shadow, but it was standing right in front of him, a shadowy figure. Cameron crept closer and noticed the figure was in fact a man. He was using some type of palm pilot and paid no attention to the chaos which erupted outside the alley. "Hello?" he said, a slightly scared tone in his voice. The man looked up and turned around. Another lightning bolt flashed above, but the buildings blocked most of the light.

What Cameron could see, however, was the hand holding the mechanical device. It wasn't human. In fact, it was more reptilian. Three clawed, scaly fingers wrapped around the device, then reached over to a pistol-looking object attached to the creature's belt. "I-I-I-I am s-sorry. I didn't mean to intrude." The figure emanated a slight growl, then stepped into the range of lightning, but Cameron was long gone before he had even seen the figure's face. He turned a corner where something green and glowing slammed into the concrete wall next to him and exploded. "Holy Fu-!" and another explosion stopped his expletive and made him run even faster.

--

Sure the pink flesh bag was gone, the figure pressed a button on his device and smiled. "Human race… your time is up." he pressed the button on the center of the device, and across the planet hundreds more were doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

The three-sided pyramids began opening like flowers. Subtle at first… the devices began speeding up quicker and quicker. People gathered around them across the planet, wondering exactly what was happening. When the "petals" fully opened, a green crystal hovered lightly off the ground atop it. "What?", Nick said as he and the bandaged Jack stood nearby.

It all happened at once. All at once across the planet. The green crystals shot directly upwards and hovered thousands of miles off the ground over each pyramid landing site. Then, as if it was a choreographed fireworks show, the all exploded. Each and every one violently exploded, and when the blast cleared, all that remained was a massive, green, pool of watery clouds which hung just above the rain clouds...

--

Four years ago…

Queens, NY

"They don't pay me enough to do this job." James, a detective, said while standing over a dead body. The victim was lying on the ground with his throat lacerated. Another detective, Kyle, walked up to him. "What do we got?" Kyle asked, and James knelt down to check the marks on the corpse's throat. "His housekeeper showed up earlier that morning and found him lying on the floor of his living room. The door was still locked, so there was no sign of forced entry." Maybe the victim knew the suspect." Kyle chimed in, and James nodded. "Perhaps. But frankly, I'd wouldn't want to know the person that did this."

James shook his head and rubbed his eyes, and Kyle noticed this. "How long have you been awake?", he asked, concerned. "About a day. Last night I saw a teenager getting shot by a drug dealer. I was powerless to stop it." "What do you mean-" "What I said!" James snapped before Kyle could finish his question of concern, then lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… look. I just haven't been the same since we found out about… you know." Kyle looked at him. "You mean that our father has been a crime lord since I was born? That he has been seeing women behind mom's back?" James looked out the window, he didn't know why he was doing it, maybe some type of deep mediation or thought process. He then looked back at his younger brother. "Yeah. That.", he said, somberly.

--

"His throat was ripped out. That's what happened to him." A very unsympathetic female coroner said after hearing a very obvious question. Kyle uneasily blushed but James sternly asked "What did it?" The Coroner looked at the body in the morgue and pointed at the laceration. "It looks like someone put on a pair of alligator claws and went to town. He also has a bite mark on his leg, something along the lines of a reptilian, but DNA analysis detected absolutely no known residue of reptilian saliva. In fact, preliminary reports indicate absolutely no similar substance on this planet aside from the consistency of saliva. James looked up at her with a stunned gaze. "You mean… extraterrestrial?" She simply shook her head "Like I said, 'preliminary'. We won't find out until the full report comes back."

James was uneasy while walking out of the medical facility. What the coroner said in there was too disturbing to let go. While walking to his car, he met eyes with another man dressed completely in black. 'Must be the undertaker' he thought as he moved past him. Something, however, didn't feel right because when he passed him, he could have sworn the man's eyes were not exactly… human. Passing it off as sleep-deprivation, James shrugged it off and walked over to his car. Kyle walked out after him and jumped into the drivers seat.

James sat down in the passenger seat of his car and laid back. The sun was just now creeping over the horizon when he asked his brother a simple question. "Do you think that if our father wasn't a criminal... He would be a detective like us?" He looked over and saw Kyle asleep on the steering wheel. "And you say I was tired." With that, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

--

October, 2014

Times Square, NY

The city was in chaos. A massive, circular, green pool of swirling energy had appeared in the sky and had a 4 mile radius. People were running around looking for loved ones and friends, intent on evacuation. The same thing was happening over and in hundreds of cities across the entire planet including, but definitely not limited to, Moscow, Pittsburg, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Sydney, Anchorage, and Berlin. Jack and Nick went back to Nick's shop, where the latter had his car locked in an alleyway behind the shop. "We have to get out of the city." Jack said, out of breath from running and limping, "we have to get out now." Nick looked back at him "Yes, we do. But not before I stop at the Cabaret Theater." Jack had a stunned look on his face. "You… want to go to a show? I think they have been cancelled by now." Nick reached into a cabinet behind his register and pulled a shotgun out from inside it, then grabbed a box of shells while saying "Not the show. I need to help the star. She's a singer… and my sister."

Seconds later, they heard a noise from inside the back room of the shop. Nick armed his shotgun and crept into the doorway, where he saw a blonde man dressed as a doctor pushing a heavy toolbox up against the door. The man was covered in dust and soot and was frantically looking for things to barricade the door. "Can I help you?" Nick said, and as soon as he did the doctor reached into his bag and pulled a scalpel on the mechanic. "Ge-ge-ge-get back! I'm warning you! I'm armed." Cameron looked at the shotgun and dropped his surgical knife. "So are you. Have you seen them?" Nick let a puzzled look dominate his face "Them" Cameron then nodded like a damaged bobble head and said "Them… the aliens."

--

Upstate New York

40 miles outside of New York City

"Come again" Kaylie said to another customer of the GasserUp fueling station. She walked outside to get some fresh and happened to glance south to see a green aura off in the distance. "Must be light from new York reflecting in the rain.", she said to herself. Looking around to see absolutely no customers nearby, she went back inside to watch TV. To her chagrin, there was no reception period. "Damn". She shut off the television and picked up a magazine, and that was when the lights went out. "Aw come on!" she exclaimed, then walked outside. She was the manager of this particular GasserUp, so she hung a "closed" sign on the door, locked it up, and walked outside. While walking to her car, she saw a green light appear in the middle of a nearby field. When the light dissipated, a man was at that precise location. From what Kaylie could see, the man was holding a cell phone looking device, was staring into the sky. She didn't need to go to an "Creepy Situation 101" class to realize this was not the place she wanted to be, but she was transfixed. Practically unmovable.

After a moment, a huge ship looking like a flying military armored personnel carrier appeared out of nowhere and Kaylie decided to hide behind her car at this point. The ship dropped something that looked like a tank, then another, then another, then another, then another. A green light appeared beneath the ship, and when it dissipated there were hundreds of humanoid figures standing like an army. After a few moments, the army began mobilizing, jumping into the tanks and driving off in different directions. Without thinking, Kaylie ran back into the gas station and sprinted to the phone. That was when she heard a ringdong of the door's motion bell…

--

"What do you mean 'aliens', like little green men?" Nick asked, wondering if his new guest was a escaped mental patient who had stolen doctors clothes in a great escape. "Don't look at me like that" Cameron snapped. "They are real. I saw one. How can you not believe me look outside, look up in the sky! There is a distinct, real possibility that these aliens are responsible for that mess." As all these words soaked in, Nick walked back to the window and looked up at the sky. Before he could say anything, however a noise, from inside the building but still up above, startled all three of them. Nick grabbed the shotgun and walked over to a door leading to the upstairs. As soon as he opened it, a humanoid creature jump down the flight of stairs and clawed at his throat. Barely avoiding it, Nick jumped out of the way, pumped the shotgun, and fired a couple of rounds into it's back. The unknown thing fell back in pain, hidden in the shadows but clearly not human. It stood up, and pulled a pistol-like-object off it's belt. "Veshka dol velti, Human…" Nick ducked out of the way as a green bolt of energy left the alien weapon and blasted out the wall behind him, and landed, rolled and fired another shotgun shell into the creature's face all in one motion. Angered, and severely wounded, the alien holstered his gun and jumped through the hole. Nick, Jack, and Cameron all looked at each other with their jaws dropped. Then Nick looked back at Cameron. "A couple of minutes ago I thought you were crazy." He said with a somber, gasping tone. "Now, I wish you were."

--

"Where are you going?" Scott asked as he trailed the ship at a constant run of mach 3. The engine was still running smooth thanks to the magnetized lithium battery. He won't forget the day Mike brought the idea of two charged magnets running together to provide infinite energy. Without thinking, he looked to his side and blurted out "You are a genius Mike-" After the thought caught up to him, he lowered his head and knocked it slightly against the jet's dashboard. "Mike." Keeping at speed, Scott looked at his sat nav and saw that he was near McGuire Military Base. "I can rearm there." Not thinking, he flew forward directly into the ship's line of fire. "DAMN, I have got to stop doing that!"

He banked to the left and barely avoided a laser light show. He armed his machine guns and fired into the hull. Green fire blazed out of the damaged area, and the ship pulled upwards. Scott pulled up after it and fired into one of the laser cannons. After taking damage, the ship cloaked and stopped in place, decloaking when the jet flew forward. "Damn!" Practically out of weapons and sleep-deprived, Scott finally closed his eyes and prepared for the end. Which unusually never came. He stopped his jet in mid-flight and spun around to face the ship. Out on the front of the silver and green vessel, he saw what seemed to be a hatch open. "40,000 feet above the ground? Are they crazy or something?" Coming out of the hatch was a small pod which hovered right in front of the Jet. Scott grabbed his s comlink and activated a short-wave radio attached to the dashboard. "I know you can hear this. Respond."

After a few moments, his radio blared to life. At first, it seemed to echo Scott's order "I… know… hear… respond." then it got more distorted, with "umanhoknowmosapienheresenglishrrlanguageenglhis" and then static for a few seconds. Scott looked at the radio like it had just spout an arm, then reached to turn it off- "Homo sapiens. Human. Earthling. Pond scum. Those words seem to have one thing in common. Can you guess what it is?" The voice on the radio was raspy, cold, and inhuman. Scott's face was pale white underneath his pressure mask, and he thought for a second that he would vomit. "What's the matter flesh bag?", he continued "You were so intent on killing me and my ship just a few minutes ago. Which is really funny because you are out of weapons, out of time, and without the element of surprise. You don't know a lot of things, apparently. I have been keeping my eye on you the past hour," Scott picked up his comlink and pressed the call button. "You have known about me following you? "Why didn't you just kill me?" "Because I want a human to see my… artwork from this vantage point. Beneath us, far beneath us is a Human military base. The concrete is my canvas, the humans are my red paint. And my weapons… they are my paintbrush. And guess what, I am a DAMN good artist."

Scott's eyes widened as he flew southward, hoping to alert the base in time. The pod flew back into the ship and moments later the sides of the monstrous alien vessel opened. Four cannons appeared where the hatches opened and each one aimed southward. Speeding up, Scott almost slammed into the concrete of the McGuire Base, where he stopped a few feet off the ground. Landing not far from a pair of soldiers, he jumped out of his jet, ripped off his gear and sprinted over to them. "We have to evacuate this base!" he screamed. One of the soldiers, Kethrin, stepped forward. "On what grounds?" Scott looked at the sky before painfully saying "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

--

40,000 feet off the ground, the Advent's commander entered the control bridge. He had just returned from a brief off-ship encounter with a small human vessel. "I want that base evaporated." he said, snarling. "Every last building and every last human." One of the gunnery officers turned around and said "The human damaged our fire-control board when he attacked last attacked us. We have to get it repaired before we can begin the assault." Unphased, the commander looked at the human base through the view screen intently before replying with "How long before it is fixed." "An hour." With this, the commander looked at the gunnery officer and said "Make it sooner." The gunnery officer chimed in with "But sir, the cannons will take-" Coldy stopping the response, the commander said "If I have to wait an hour…then I will stuff you into the cannon and conduct a test on how an pathetic excuse for a gunnery officer looks when he's slamming into solid concrete at hundreds of feet per second. Understand?"

"Yes…s-s-s-s-ssir."

"Good." Fleet Commander Zanzikar said, with a hint of a smile in his face. "Then get to work."

TO BE CONTINUED

.


End file.
